Madness
by OneManApocalypse
Summary: With every time she moved, he somehow found her. Even thought his memory was damaged beyond repair and his mind locked in the vastness of insanity, he still found her. He may not remember what happened; but she does.


Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time

_So I saw the episode "I Remember You" and I felt so much from that episode. It's really sad in a way, because you realize that, despite being a kid/teen show, there is so much deep meaning in the storyline and the Ice King has a very tragic past. The crowns over influential power causes his memory to deteriorate at a pace that effectively causes him to forget things he did mere minutes ago. He is basically insane, all because of that crown._

_Despite that, I wanted to write this in a deeper meaning to the episode. It takes place after the episode, and involves Marceline/Ice King family-ish bond. Angst and sad themes ahead though, so be ready for that.  
_

_No flames, enjoy!_

* * *

The darkness was where Marceline was used to dwelling; her skin unable to bear the brunt of the bright sun rays. It was a curse bestowed upon her birth- her inability to unveil herself in the sunlight. She'd grown accustomed to living in the shadows, living alone in fear of hurting others. Nobody wanted to know a scary vampire-demon and nobody needed to know one, either.

It was easiest and best for everyone, including herself, if she lived in the shadows.

One of the only people in her childhood to actually try and help her, despite her status, was a man she'd thought to be gone- missing, even dead. She didn't think he'd find his way back to her, yet again. He always, _always _figured out how to find her, over and over. She could move all across the scarred lands of Ooo, hiding in the scalding depths of the Fire Kingdom, and yet, he'd still find her.

It just seemed like fate's way of messing with her some more. It wasn't enough to torture her with the loneliness of thousands of years, watching as countless people perished under the intense poisoning of the Great Mushroom War. No, it just wasn't enough to give her a father that did not help her- Fate just _had _to make it worse for her by giving her the one person that could hurt her the most.

Simon Petrikov.

She still remembered the first time she'd met the mid-aged antiquarian at a very young and innocent-looking age. She was alone, crying in the midst of a ruined and cracked street as she'd witnessed several people die either from another's hand or by their own choice. She remembered the heat of the fires that burned around her, the thunder rumbling in the distance, merging with the sound of buildings as they fell from their proud foundations.

She remembered it all; yet, she remembered him best. He'd come up to her, undaunted by the scenes around him, and immediately attempted to cheer her up. She'd been oblivious to his blue hued skin, his longish goblin-like nose, even to his thin and wire-like hair and beard, all because of his kind and generously caring actions toward her. He'd jogged over to a broken toy shop and gotten her a bear- one that she would keep for centuries.

The jingle of the crowd strapped to his hip clanking against the contents of his pocket were the only sound she could identify uniquely as his; and at one time, it was the most reassuring sound she'd ever heard.

Until the day he put it on to help them evade a band of desperate thieves. With no society left to integrate into, and most people dying, small bands of bandits now littered the world, hoping to last before they succumbed to the radiation of the nuclear attacks. In one instance, when jumped, Simon placed the crown on his head and defended the young Marceline from their attack.

The toll was taken, however. From that moment on, his mind seemed to establish, to which she determined was actually a re-establishment, a link with the crown. It seemed to sense him and begged him to place it upon his head, for whatever reason. Sometimes, Marceline would pretend to sleep, only to hear Simon slowly mumble to himself and stroke the crown protectively, each night getting progressively worse.

His memory began to deteriorate, slowly vanishing alongside his sanity. He started to forget his purpose and his skin turned bluer. His beard became shaggier and more like powered snow. His nose elongated even more than it was, becoming like a long needle. It wasn't until his glasses broke and he froze Marceline's arm that he finally realized what was happening.

And now, sitting in the darkness of her bedroom, hand-written note in hand, Marceline finally understood as well.

_Dear Marceline,_

_I want to apologize for everything that I've done. I wish I could tell you this myself, but alas, things have become complicated, as you may have already figured out. You're a smart girl, I'm sure you've noticed my... changes. To be honest, I didn't notice them, myself, until I did something I will always regret. I did not mean to attack you. I lost sight of myself and of what is important to me.  
_

_You.  
_

_The crown's power is too strong for me to hold off, and I fear that I may no longer be in control after this. I wish to not inflict anymore harm upon you, so I have decided to leave you before I hurt you once more. It is for your safety that I leave, for I can not live with myself, knowing you are in harm's way. I write this, regretting every word, but the crown's influence is too strong. I can already feel my sanity gradually slipping away once again. The Simon you've come to know is most likely, going to fade away. I am so sorry for this, but I can't hurt you again.  
_

_I'm not sure how many of us are left in this world, but I know that Earth isn't her name anymore; she's become far too scarred to continue to deem that name. The war has taken much of the population and I fear humans may be extinct soon. Hopefully in the future, there is at least one still remaining. I know this is hard, to be a little girl and growing up in a place where everything is destroyed, but you have done exceptional. I will always be proud of the girl you are, and even the girl you'll become. Your parents would be, and are, proud.  
_

_I feel my head slowly leaving me again, so with this, I leave you with this sorrow-filled goodbye. I wish you the best of luck in survival and maybe, I can find a way to reverse these psychological effects so I may return to travel with you.  
_

_Remember me for who I was, and not for what I've become,  
_

_Simon Petrikov  
_

_P.S. If you ever have a child, Gunter would be a good name.  
_

"It was never his fault..." Marceline mumbled quietly to herself. Her eyes were heavy, weighed down by the tears that had fallen in previous reading of the note. She'd read it over and over, but yet she couldn't bring herself to stop analyzing every single word. It felt like the real Simon, the one she'd once come to know and even love, was talking to her and was even by her side.

Yet, when she looked at her side and didn't see anyone, she felt a pang of loneliness swarm through her body.

In a sudden flood of emotion, Marceline unwillingly clenched her fist, crumpling the note in a scrunch of paper as her eyes narrowed and a scream of anger came bursting from her throat. It escaped and echoed through her room, through her house, through her cave, riding along the gentles wisps of air outside, going throughout Ooo with a single message attached.

She was alone, again.

"WHY?!" Marceline shouted at the heavens, another round of tears beginning to swarm within her eyes. Her fists were now tight as possible, ready to deck the closest thing to her. "WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME?! WHAT DID I EVER DO?"

There was no answer but the silence that filled the room once more. Marceline stared at her ceiling, as if actually expecting an answer to miraculously appear in front of her- like a sign that someone was looking out for her. But there was no answer. There was no sound.

There was only silence until the Vampire-girl's tears began to fall freely again and her choked sobs filled the room with a pitiful sound of her weeping. The sheets, already dampened, were even more soaked as another round of salty, angst-filled tears slid down Marceline's pale cheeks, splashing onto the sheet below.

"Why... why..." Marceline mumbled as she curled into her covers. She couldn't help the tears that fell without resistance- she'd held back centuries of emotions, she'd been ridiculed and separated from societies for the longest periods of time and the one man who'd ever shown her that she wasn't alone had been turned into an amnesiac with a sad obsession with princesses- all because of the crown.

"No more..." Marceline whispered to the darkness, hoping that someone, somewhere, would spare her the agony of going through the emotion again. Everyt time Simon- no, the Ice King- found her, she was sent into a spiral of depression, all because he had no memory of her, or even himself.

All because of the crown.

All because he'd spiraled into insanity.

Simon Petrikov was gone; replaced by the Ice King.

* * *

_This is a decent one-shot in my opinion. I know Marceline may not be the type of person to do this, but I felt like her build-up of centuries worth of pain would be reflective in a breaking point- especially in seeing a man who'd cared for you, only to leave because he was going insane. Kind of makes for a hard moment?_

_Regardless, please review and no flaming. Enjoy and let's hope for an interesting episode in "The Lich"!  
_


End file.
